Sprint Follows Family Plan With New Unlimited Offer At $60

Sprint Corp. announced a new $60 a month unlimited data plan last week, after adding a shared data offering for families early this week.

Sprint Corp. announced a new $60 a month unlimited data plan last week, after adding a shared data offering for families early this week.

The offer undercuts rival T-Mobile US Inc.’s unlimited offering at $80 a month.

"People know Sprint for Unlimited," chief executive Marcelo Claure said in the announcement. "Unlimited talk, text and data for $60 is the best unlimited postpaid plan available."

Roger Entner, with Recon Analytics, called the move aggressive but added that it many not stir a response.

"I think T-Mobile is going to ignore it and see what kind of impact it has on its finances," Entner said. "It’s a relatively small (part of the) market."

Sprint’s shared data plan announced Monday targets families, which is a much larger part of the market. It also aims to compete most directly with AT&T and Verizon, which offer shared data plans but not unlimited plans. AT&T and Verizon each have more customers than Sprint and T-Mobile have together.

Customers are eligible for Sprint’s $60 unlimited plan if they purchase a phone through Sprint’s installment purchase plan, pay full price for the device or bring their own phone compatible to its network.

Sprint’s announcement followed T-Mobile’s jab-laced announcement of a referral program that would provide a one-year unlimited upgrade or $10 a month credit for customers who "rescue beleaguered Sprint" customers over to the magenta network.

T-Mobile’s referral credit is available for recruiting customers from AT&T and Verizon, too.

Sprint’s announcement, which followed T-Mobile’s earlier in the day, made a bit of jab back. It said Sprint’s plan is better than the promotional price at T-Mobile and customers "don’t have to jump through T-Mobile’s hoops and recruit their friends."

Recruiting new customers was a key feature of Sprint’s Framily plan, which it is dropping Friday. Consumers would earn bigger discounts by adding more subscribers to their Framily accounts. Anyone could join a Framily as the billing was handled separated, and some Sprint customers offered their Framily accounts on eBay.